Tag Archives: ladybug

I am preparing to attend my second market in this, my revitalised small business life. And while I would love to report that all has been smooth sailing i would be lying because that is not how life happens. For anyone!

On the product development side I have lots of positive things to report, including new earring designs, key rings, wine charms, stitch markers, and more ideas that are coming together. I have enjoyed finding new ways to make tea related paraphernalia and the process of sourcing supplies, learning new ways to craft things, and thinking about packaging and branding. The products in the following photos are all available in my shop, with more if you would like to see the whole range.

I have also been crocheting away, making tea cosies and delivering orders. This cosy is my current favourite and sold very quickly so I am inspired to play with this style a little more. You really can never have enough ladybirds in your life!

That is all pretty positive isn’t it? What has real life got to do with all of this? My chicks and I have been having a bit of a rough life over the last few weeks. My eldest ended up in hospital for a week unexpectedly (she is receiving great treatment and support for what ails her and will be fine) and the ripple effect through the family is still being felt. Existing struggles with school attendance have been magnified, and anxiety levels are high. I saw a friend briefly this morning after a horrible couple of hours at home and answered her query about how I was with a very breezy ‘I am great’, then realised that I was great in that exact moment, standing in the sunshine on her front step, even though a couple of hours earlier I had wondered if the sky was about to fall in. It is a useful reminder that there are lovely moments even in days of stress.

Big changes are happening in the latest round of strategies to make life better for my chicks. My beautiful boy is now doing a combination of Distance Education and school attendance, which makes me his supervisor. Not a fun job but we have had some nice moments in amongst the tough ones in the short time we have been doing it. The long term challenge here is to understand how he learns best so that I can support him to gain the right skills to go on and succeed in life. He hates to make errors so any process of asking questions or asking him to give answers is fraught with anxiety, and therefore aggression, for him. In order to give him the best chances I need to stay calm when I really want to scream at him to just do it. Oops. Best keep working on not saying that!

Oh how I wish this was true!

My biggest girl is planning a huge adventure, going to live with their father for a while. She will be living overseas, attending an International School, and being exposed to all sorts of amazing experiences. I am going to miss her but this is the best decision for her at the moment and she deserves to have a chance to live as a teenager without feeling responsible for her siblings and her mother. I keep stressing to her that she is not to feel responsible for her father, and that it is his job to look after her, not the other way around, but only time will tell how that one goes. This is not a decision that I thought I would be making, but it was my suggestion that she go, and I am really comfortable that it is the right decision for her, and that we need to try it as an option for her. And seriously – what teenager doesn’t get excited at the thought of moving to the other side of the world and getting to see and do amazing things for a few months or longer?! (I admit openly that I am very envious of the experience she is about to have!)

As for my middle chick, well, she is still struggling at the moment. I haven’t quite worked out the next strategy for her, to help her to feel safe and secure enough to attend school, but I do have a project to keep her busy for the next few weeks. Today we had a blank library box delivered to our house, as part of a larger community project to see 10 little libraries installed in our community. She is going to design and then paint our box before it is installed, possibly at our driveway, to hold books for passersby to borrow, swap, etc. I am really excited about this project so am keeping my fingers crossed that she maintains her enthusiasm too!

The blank canvas is so exciting in its possibilities!

That is the real life part of running a small business. Family and homelife will always have priority, and plans for products and for growing a business will always be affected by whatever surprise event comes along. And that is where the tea comes in. Over the course of the last few weeks as we have moved in and out of crisis mode, tea has been a constant theme. Sharing a cup of tea with a friend as we talk over the latest development in our lives, finding time to sit and drink a cup of tea as a break from being in a hospital room, or sitting at home with a book and a cup of tea to clear my head. Tea has kept me going in the way that wine would have in my younger days. My favourite flavours at the moment are a Red and Green Vanilla Rooibus, and New York Breakfast (a black tea with almost maple syrup notes) and a refreshing herbal green tea. In my younger days (when wine was the answer, not tea) I was a focussed clothes shopper. I could be in Melbourne for a meeting and pop out at lunchtime and buy my year’s wardrobe before getting back to the meeting. (I was living in Darwin and shopping wasn’t great there!) These days I don’t buy clothes and shoes like I used to, but I can hit T2 and stock up on flavours, present my loyalty card and be back at the car within an impressively short space of time. Same focus, just different products!

Anyway, that is it from my little corner of the world. Preparing for the Collected and Created Market in Gundaroo on Sunday 19 November from 10 – 4, living a real life, and drinking lots of tea. I hope your real life is in solution mode rather than survival mode!

the little bird

Welcome to a little bird made me! I am Theresa, the little bird who makes things. My other labels include mother of three, owner of dogs, sheep and chickens, grower of plants, autism parent, hoarder of fabric and yarn, retired lawyer, maker of all sorts of things that take my fancy, lover of a good gin and tonic, and tea addict. I am based in rural New South Wales, Australia.

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Wow the return to school had been hard work! After wishing the holidays would end I now, ironically, wish they would start again! All the new routines and old anxieties combine to form a perfect storm for my kids so they have been working hard to get through each day. In amongst this I had the wonderful news that my eldest daughter has been accepted to attend a great agricultural boarding school, starting this weekend. So in between school runs she and I have been shopping up a storm to get her kitted out with her own set of things that are normally shared resources at home like shoe polish and coat hangers and laundry baskets. Phew!!!!

By this afternoon I was exhausted. I made myself a cup of tea and sat down with the wool I received from an order I placed with Bendigo Woollen Mills last week. I am in love! All Australian grown and processed, in gorgeous colours, big 200g balls, and it is lovely to work with. Inspired by this I sat down to start making a tea cosy with it. The end result is nothing like the original plan for a rainbow cosy, but I am very happy with it. It might need a name. Leave it with me to ponder.... ... See MoreSee Less

What a glorious Sunday morning we have! I am bustling around finishing sewing a new batch of reusable tea bags, cleaning my house and preparing for a road trip this afternoon and I am sure all my energy is coming from the lovely weather!

I have just had a revelation that my road trip today and tomorrow is an opportunity to check out some new Op Shops so I am very excited! My collection of vintage cups and saucers and teapots is growing all the time but I just can’t miss a chance like this!

A summary of news in photo form - I finished the Rose Garden cosy, am in love with this vintage teacup trio and hope to find more, and am loving the fact that my reusable teabags are walking out the door at the moment! ... See MoreSee Less

This week has been a whirl of the return to school, interviewing for schools, and finding our old routine. In between I have been busy with all sorts of little pieces of making but with three different ‘works in progress ‘ I need to push on and have some finishes today! This tea cosy is still a work in progress as I still don’t have the final vision clear in my mind. Definitely a case of design as you go! Perhaps a few more roses..... ... See MoreSee Less

Okay, last week's post about being accepted to have my products in store at in.cube8r Gallery and Emporium was pretty big. But I may be topping it this week with the announcement of plans to be represented in not one but two more shops, and two more States along with it! First things first - my box of goodies is in transit to Melbourne today, and should arrive in time for the stocking of my products on 1 February. [ 1,164 more word ]

Yesterday I sent a box full of quirky tea paraphernalia (aka the stuff I make) off to take up residence at the in.cube8r gallery in Fitzroy where it will be available from 1 February. It includes earrings like these, reusable tea bags, tea infusers, tea cosies and a few other bits and bobs, so if you are in Melbourne do pop along and have a look! And if you are in Melbourne and want a custom order made up send me a message and I can arrange for you to collect it from the shop. 2018 is off to a great start! ... See MoreSee Less